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Solution to OALD?

Well, now I believe we're dealing with OALD. If its not one thing its another! Baby Lilly will eating just fine until she pulls herself off the breast and starts to cry. We'll play that game for an hour till she settles down. Tonight I couldn't take it so I pumped and fed her from the bottle.
She never seems to choke and I don't see milk spraying from my breast but the pulling off and crying over and over and over seems to be an indication that I have OALD.
Please someone help me???!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How do I solve OALD?

Re: Solution to OALD?

There are lots of tips for OALD, and one of the main ones may be to lower your milk supply. But the most immediate thing that helped my baby with OALD was side-lying feedings.... then gravity's not shooting milk down your LO's throat, and any excess milk can dribble out of the corner of LO's mouth.

Re: Solution to OALD?

Hello. Congratulations and welcome to the forum.

If you do indeed have OALD there a few things that you can do to rectify it. For one, I would say avoid pumping. That will overstimuate your body into making more milk, just compounding the problem. When you pump you have no idea how much the baby will eat so you end up pumping more than necessary, in which case you are telling your body that your body needs that much. It's a vicious cycle. The next step would be to start feeding the baby from one breast per feeding to tell your body to stop producing so much milk. It does take a couple of days, so patience is necessary. In the meantime, as Kristen said, try finding a position that will alleviate the symptoms, like side laying so that the milk needs to work against gravity. If you find after a couple of days of offering one breast per feeding that it's not doing the trick, you may need to move onto block feeding - this is what eventually worked for us. You will get many different opinions on how long to block feed, but for us I would feed off of the same breast until it would be empty. Sometimes that would be 2 feedings, sometimes as many as 4. Most people will tell you to do 3 or 4 hour blocks of time on the same breast. In doing all of this you may find that you become engorged. If this is the case, please resist the urge to pump - this could compound the problem - instead hand express a little just to ease the discomfort.

All that being said, I'm not 100% convinced that you have OALD since you say that you do not see a spray and she is not choking. You may look for other signs. Is she spitting up at all and possibly have reflux? Is she gassy? Is she tired and only wants to comfort nurse, getting annoyed that milk is coming out? Have you tried changing positions? My daughter has gone on position strikes, meaning she would refuse the cross cradle and only feed lying down for a while. How old is Lilly? Is it possible she is going through a growth spurt?

I hope this helps. Please come back and let us know how it's going. Lots of luck to you!

Re: Solution to OALD?

So, how do you solve the comfort nursing problem. My dd like to nurse for food...play a little, then she wants a little nap...but before that little nap, she likes to nurse herself to sleep...just a little. I don't mind, but she seems to get extremely irritate when she gets more milk than she bargined for...she is even now, starting to pull away and clamp more on me and try to work things so she can nurse with but not get any milk. curious...

Re: Solution to OALD?

Originally Posted by dianne

So, how do you solve the comfort nursing problem. My dd like to nurse for food...play a little, then she wants a little nap...but before that little nap, she likes to nurse herself to sleep...just a little. I don't mind, but she seems to get extremely irritate when she gets more milk than she bargined for...she is even now, starting to pull away and clamp more on me and try to work things so she can nurse with but not get any milk. curious...

I'm not sure I know what you mean by "solve" comfort nursing? I let my daughter comfort nurse until it has become painful or uncomfortable for me, then I unlatch her. If she decides she needs it again, she relatches, but most of the time she has gotten what she needs from it. I have noticed that the sucking for comfort is a different kind of suck and she has learned how to do it without getting any milk, but I can't let her do it for too long or my nipples get sore. Does that help?